SpotXchange On Publisher Tools; Ads Lag Larger Audiences

Video ad marketplace operator SpotXchange is promoting some additional tools for publishers that promise to help balance the advantages that advertisers and media buyers get from demand side platforms. From the release: “Publishers will have insight into who their buyers are, what segments of their inventory are most in demand, the associated bid density and CPMs of advertisers’ bids, and the tools to make selling decisions based on those insights.” Read the release.

Ads Lag Larger Audiences

The Pew Research Center’s report that news consumption on digital devices is still growing through the roof is no surprise. But the numbers showing the gulf between fast rising consumption and glacial growth of ad spending are nevertheless telling. But there’s continued hope in the use of native ads and video, reports Adweek’s Emma Bazilion. “Video advertising, the fastest growing category, expanded 46.5 percent in 2012. Sponsorship advertising, encompassing everything from Promoted Tweets to native ads, was up 40 percent in 2012,” she notes, adding that the public’s awareness of the challenges remains slim. Read more.

Value Clicking

ValueClick hosted an investor’s day event last week and analysts came away impressed. BMO Capital Market’s Dan Salmon said that the key takeaway was that “ValueClick’s new strategy is focused on becoming a more full-service marketing services partner, rather than a vendor to fill out an online media plan,” particularly through its focus on driving commerce online, mail order, and offline. Meanwhile, Jefferies’ Brian Pitz praised the hiring of Scott Eagleto run the firm-wide marketing strategy,which the analysts said represented “another step towards integrating VCLK's offerings, raising its profile and differentiating it from point solutions.” Read more.

Advertising’s ‘One’ Problem

Harvard Business Review’s Maureen Hoch asks several major marketer CMOs and advertising exec -- representing Xerox, Leo Burnett USA, Cleveland Clinic, Adobe, and Nike -- what one ad industry problem they would like to see solved. Adobe CMO Ann Lewnes remains vexed by the age old accountability issue, saying that it can only be resolved by more digital spending. As she told attendees at last week’s 4A’s conference, most marketers spend 25 percent of their budgets on digital, while Adobe spends 74 percent. “Throughout a campaign, we measure the impact of every element of the mix and optimize the campaign based on what we learn,” she said. “There are no excuses anymore for not knowing how your advertising is working.” Read the rest.

The RTB ‘Experience’

Martin Kelly, the CEO/co-founder of Infectious Media, notes that real-time bidding is the future of advertising, but is dismayed that the creative focus of the business remains hopelessly “analogue.” Writing in The Wall UK, he says the fundamental hurdle of RTB is the lack of a true “RTB experience” that can engage users on their own terms the way targeting them via cookies latches on to their tracked interests. “We have all this amazing technology that allows us to pinpoint our audience and bid solely for them,” Kelly laments, “and yet we generally show them the same ad we show everyone else.” Read more.

Google BrandWords

Citing the embrace of digital advertising by big brand spenders like L’Oreal, Audi and Kay Jewelers, Neal Mohan, Google’s VP for product management, says that the company’s seen a “65 percent increase in the last quarter alone in the number of brand advertisers using our brand formats and buying tools.” He credits new buying tools like viewable impressions product ActiveView and brand lift measurements as encouraging advertisers to open up their budgets to display. Read the blog post.

Data Cup Runneth Over

The tumultuous data economy gets the feature treatment from Ad Age's Kate Kaye. Among the details, Forbes describes how a deal with Krux helps it ward off data leakage. "Another premium publisher recently approached Forbes, [saying] it had been purchasing Forbes-branded data through BlueKai and was interested in partnering to co-create audience segments. Without the tag-management system in place...Forbes data could have become overly commoditized by spilling into exchanges without the company's approval." More. Also in AdAge yesterday, a look at holding companies’ attempts to spread the data love beyond their media agency networks. Read that.